Adjustable golf shoe heel



April 1968 R. c. ENGLAND 3,377,723

ADJUSTABLE GOLF SHOE HEEL Filed July 18, 1966 INVENTOR. KOBEFT C. A/6MND United States Patent Oin'ce 3,377,723 Patented Apr. 16, 1968 3,377,723 ADJUSTABLE GOLF SHOE HEEL Robert C. England, 109 Chase Ave.,

Cashmere, Wash. 98815 Filed July 18, 1966, Ser. No. 565,822 7 Claims. (Cl. 36-39) This invention relates to a composite golf shoe heel which can be adjusted to selected positions to deter swaying of a golfer while he is swinging his golf club.

In swinging, while driving a ball, a golfer must pivot on one foot and simultaneously bend his knee so that the calf of his leg forms an angle with his thigh and the side of his torso. In executing such movement, his weight is carried on the inner portion of the ball of the foot. However, such compound motion of pivoting on the foot and simultaneously bending the knee is an unnatural motion, particularly to the novice golfer, because a person tends to pivot by supporting his weight evenly across the foot and with his leg straight. Consequently, it is desirable when executing such a swing, particularly when driving a golf ball, to provide a golf shoe which tilts the foot inward to urge the golfer to support his weight on the inner side of the foot. Attachments have been provided for this purpose, but such devices must be carried separately and attached to the shoe, usually on the outer shoe edge adjacent to the ball of the foot. Such attachments are unnatural and tend to cause the golfer to focus his attention on the position of and weight distribution on his foot instead of permitting him to concentrate on executing other important movements required to achieve an effective stroke.

Consequently, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a golf shoe heel adjustable from a conventional flat position for walking to a slanted position to urge a golfer to pivot correctly in an easy and natural manner.

A further object is to provide means for easily adjusting such a heel even when it is wet and slippery.

An additional object is to provide an adjustable heel which is simple in construction and therefore economical to manufacture.

Another important object is to provide such an adjustable heel which can be applied easily to a conventional golf shoe without modification of such shoe.

The foregoing objects can be accomplished by providing a golf shoe heel having upper and lower sections of wedge shape, each having one fiat face and one inclined face, which sections are relatively rotatable to be locked in either of two selected positions. In one position the ground-engaging heel surface is substantially parallel to the shoe sole and in the other position such heel surface is inclined transversely relative to the shoe Sole.

FIGURE 1 is an end elevation of a golf shoe having a heel of the present invention with parts broken away to show the heel in section in one adjusted position, and FIGURE 2 is an outer side elevation of the heel portion of such golf shoe.

FIGURE 3 is an end elevation similar to FIGURE 1 with the heel in another adjusted position, and FIGURE 4 is an outer side elevation of the heel portion of such shoe.

FIGURE 5 is a bottom plan with parts in exploded relationship to show the internal heel construction.

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary transverse section showing a modified form of adjustable heel.

The golf shoe heel has an upper wedge section 1 and a lower wedge section 2 having adjacent inclined faces and each having a generally elliptical plan profile. When the composite heel is assembled, the inclined surfaces are disposed in face-to-face contact. An upper circular hard plate 3 received in a recess in the lower inclined face of upper section 1 is in bearing engagement with a complemental lower circular hard plate 4 in the upper inclined face of lower section 2. Detent means for locking the two sections in selected relative positions include a ball 5 carried in a socket 6 in the lower heel section which ball can roll on upper plate 3. A compression spring 7 in the bottom of the socket urges the ball upward to engage in one of two recesses 8 in the upper heel section corresponding to the selective heel positions.

The two recesses 8 are provided radially equidistant from opposite sides of bolt 9 on a transverse diameter of plate 3 in section 1 and socket 6 is located the same radial distance from bolt 9 on the corresponding diameter of plate 4 in section 2 so that the ball will engage one or the other of the recesses when the major axes of the two heel sections are in registry. It will be obvious that the recesses and socket can be arranged on. any corresponding diameters of the plates.

The upper section 1 is bonded to the sole of a golf shoe G in a conventional manner, such as by contact cement, and the lower section is rotatably mounted on a bolt 9 extending through both heel sections and secured by a nut 10. The head 11 of the bolt is countersunk in the fiat upper face of the upper section and the nut is received in recess 12 in the bottom of the lower Section. The nut may be a locknut or a lock washer maybe used to prevent the nut from loosening and thereby permit the ball to pass over a recess 8. A spacer sleeve 9' encircling the bolt 9 establishes the spacing between the nut 10 and bolt head 11, and therefore provides clearance between sections 1 and 2 to prevent the sections from binding. The bottom of the lower section 2 may carry spikes S, if desired.

In FIGURES l and 3, socket 6 is shown in the lower section 2 of the heel. In FIGURE 6, an alternate arrangement is shown, in which such socket is in the thick side of upper heel section 1 and recesses 8 are provided in the lower section.

The heel is easily adjusted by rotating the lower heel section about bolt 9 as an axis and finger grooves 13 may be provided in the edge of the lower section to facilitate turning, particularly when the heel is wetted by dewladen grass, for example.

The adjustable heel would be applied only to the shoe worn on the golfers pivot foot, that is, the right shoe for a right-handed golfer or the left shoe for a left-handed golfer. The heel is compact and self-contained so that it can be applied to any shoe simply and inexpensively by removing the original shoe heel and bonding the adjustable heel in place with contact cement or by other conventional shoe repair techniques.

The heel would be attached to a shoe so that the thickest edge of the upper section would be on the outer side of the shoe, the shoe shown in FIGURES 1 and 3 being a right shoe. For walking and putting, for example, the lower section 2 of the heel would be locked by ball 5 in one recess 8 in the position of FIGURE 1 in which the heel sections taper oppositely transversely of the shoe so that the composite heel is of substantially uniform thickness. When the golfer prepares to drive the ball, he can simply lift his foot, grasp the lower heel section with his thumb an fingertips, aided by grooves 13, and twist such lower section until ball 5 locks into the recess 8 at the opposite side of the heel. The thick edges of both heel sections 1 and 2 would then be in registry, as shown in As the golfer swings the club back over his shoulder to begin the stroke, his weight shifts to the pivot foot and, ordinarily, tends to shift to the outside of that foot. As he subsequently pivots to drive the ball and follow through, he would have to simultaneously shift his weight from the outer to the inner side of his foot while most of his weight is supported on that foot. It is, therefore, difiicult to maintain good balance throughout the stroke. By rotating the shoe heel on his pivot foot into the inclined position, however, his weight is naturally shifted toward the inside of the pivot foot throughout the swing, thereby eliminating the unbalancing weight shift across the pivot foot as he executes the stroke.

I claim as my invention:

1. A composite golf shoe heel comprising upper and lower heel sections each having an inclined face forming thereby one thick side and an opposite thin side, mounting means mounting said upper and lower sections with said inclined faces in face-to-face relationship, and locking means for locking said upper and lower sections in selected relative positions to alter the tilt of the heel lower surface relative to the heel upper surface.

2. The heel defined in claim 1, in which the locking means includes detent means.

3. The heel defined in claim 1, in which the locking means includes a spring-loaded ball in one heel section and heel recesses in the other heel section arranged to receive said ball to lock the sections in selected relative positions.

4. The heel defined in claim 3, and plate means in the heel section containing the recesses disposed in registry with the ball forming a bearing plate therefor.

5. The heel defined in claim 1, in which the mounting means includes a bolt extending through the upper and lower sections and securing means receivable on said bolt for securing the heel sections thereon, said bolt forming an axis about which the heel sections are rotatable relatively into selected positions.

6. The heel defined in claim 5, in which the locking means locks the upper and lower sections in two relatively rotated positions, in one position wherein the thick sides of the upper and lower sections are in registry and in a second position wherein the thin side of the upper section is in registry with the thick side of the lower section.

7. The heel defined in claim 1, and means on said lower section whereby said lower section may be securely gripped to effect relative rotation of the upper and lower sections.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,855,704 10/ 1958 Schleisinger. 2,959,873 11/1960 Schleisinger. 3,085,359 4/1963 Rubens 3639 3,181,254 5/1965 Cowen 36-39 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

A. R. GUEST, Examiner. 

1. A COMPOSITE GOLF SHOE HEEL COMPRISING UPPER AND LOWER HEEL SECTIONS EACH HAVING AN INCLINED FACE FORMING THEREBY ONE THICK SIDE AND AN OPPOSITE THIN SIDE, MOUNTING MEANS MOUNTING SAID UPPER AND LOWER SECTIONS WITH SAID INCLINED FACES IN FACE-TO-FACE RELATIONSHIP, AND 